The Product Life Cycle - By Prof. Govindrajan

It’s called the Product Life Cycle (PLC). The graph seems innocuous. You cannot be blamed for wondering as to whether this was of any practical use. Actually, this is something which can be of great help in planning for a brand.

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Careers in Advertising and Marketing Communications - Part 3 - By Eswara VAN Sharma

In order for all this communication to actually reach the consumer, it has to be disseminated through media. This media needs to be bought basis the markets the client wants to reach, the particular target audience (male or female, youth or senior citizens, etc.) and their media habits (what they read, watch, follow and where and when and which media brands or channels, etc.)

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Careers in Advertising and Marketing Communications - Part 2 - By Eswara VAN Sharma

Let us say you have decided to join an advertising agency as a Management Trainee or Account Executive. You will be a part of a team of account management people (sometimes also called Client Servicing) who deal with one or more Clients. A client is simply a company (ranging from a partnership firm or a small business to a large corporate house) who has hired your agency as their communications partner.

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Careers in Advertising and Marketing Communications - Part 1 - By Eswara VAN Sharma

If you’ve been following this blog or your professors closely (as you should have been!) your classroom learning would have been supplemented by perspectives on a career in marketing, about consumers, customers, media, a career in FMCG sales and what happens in market research.

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A Career in FMCG Sales - By Partha Chakrabartty

As you read this, you can count on me to be able to put myself in the shoes of a B-school student. I can picture myself sitting on those hard plastic chairs, waiting to be told what to expect from one company or another. And distrusting most of it, because, let’s face it, companies are advertising themselves in PPTs. You can also count on me to remember, keenly, the difference between what people expect from a marketing job in India, and what they confront at the start of their careers.

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A Career in Marketing - Phase 3

Now, we shift our attention to the Medium. We need a Medium to reach the message to our potential customers. Hence, we need to look at all media which attracts “eyeballs”. Till 1982, there were only four media available. (1) Print (which includes magazines as well as newspapers). (2) Radio (which involves the ear and not the eye, but never mind!). (3) Cinema (shown before the film starts with other trailers)

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Careers in Market Research - Part 2 - By Abhik Gupta

As always, the provider and the receiver provide alternative career options. In my mind however, it is about the inclination of the individual – some of us take pleasure in the process and hence specialize in providing the service while others are assimilators who see greater joy in the utility of the service. Both are equally important, and actually part of the same team.

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The Customer and the Consumer

The Consumer.

The Customer.

These two words pretty much form the fulcrum of Marketing – as the profession (and indeed, all of business) exists because of them.

These two words are used extensively in Marketing Courses – and used interchangeably. While I have no problem with that, I guess it is important that we understand the difference between these two words.

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Careers in Market Research - Part 1 - By Abhik Gupta

The atmosphere resembles a fire service station; a terse phone call, an urgent request for more details and an immediate call to action from a little desk leading to a swirl of active bodies. A quick meeting is convened, instructions handed out and each member embarks on the set of tasks handed out.

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“Ab karna kya hai” – A B-School student’s first attempt at “Understanding the Consumer” [Part 2]

The final phase of the project, where one has to present findings of the primary research, is more an exercise on “data-story-telling”. It is not limited to looking at outputs of individual questions in your questionnaire.

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The Career Path for being a Marketing Head via Brand Management - By Anupriya Singhal

It has been my long standing ambition to teach Marketing to B School students. I do believe that it’s only through teaching that one can leave a lineage. So needless to say I was more than eager to write this when Prof. Govindrajan asked me to.  Before I take you through the different career paths Marketing has to offer

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“Ab karna kya hai” – A B-School student’s first attempt at “Understanding the Consumer” [Part 1]

Across all B-Schools, the first exposure to Marketing Management happens through the MM1 course in Term 1. An integral part of this course is the Term Project, where the students, in groups, for the first time get to do some research related to a Brand (…some B-Schools might be doing this in Term 2 in the MM2 course nowadays).

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A Career in Marketing - Phase 2

For any product to be designed and/or re-designed, there are two tasks to be performed. The first is the analysis of consumer needs (and trends thereof) and designing/re-designing a product or service around it. The second is a clear communication of this to the consumers.

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Why this blog . . .

What made two reasonably lazy Marketing Professors (who have been teaching full-time Marketing courses to B-School students for 25+ and 5+ years respectively) start writing a Blog on Marketing?

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A Career in Marketing - Phase 1

What is a Career in Marketing like? What are the different roles offered? Just what does one do? These are some of the questions which every Graduate or MBA thinks about.

The general perception is that Marketing is a “creative profession”. To be honest, like all other professions, Marketing is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.

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